Defeat Those Spam Robots!

Don't display live email address links
on your web pages. Spammers' robots scour the Internet
and capture email addresses which, when clicked, open
the user's email program so they can easily type a message. It's convenient
and easy for the user, but the link will most
certainly be deposited into a data bank with
other email addresses. That database will circulate and be
copied and the spam problem will worsen.
See suggestions below for displaying
web page email links.

Are you a website owner? Do not display an email
address in the footer at the bottom of your web page. Instead,
display a one or two word phrase ("Email Us"
will do) that links to the Contact page or the General Inquiry form.

Don't allow
organizations to make links of your listings. When you agree to
have your email address displayed with your online listing on the website of
professional and civic organizations to which you belong, request that it
NOT be displayed as a live link. Check your listing! If you can click on
your email address and open a blank message on your computer, contact the
organization and ask them to list it using one of the methods described
below.

Do encrypt website email
links. If you must display your email link on a web page, make sure
your webmaster has encrypted it so it cannot be detected by spam robots.
(Let us know if you've discovered a surefire way to make this work.)

Do ask friends to remove
you from their group email messages (and don't send group messages yourself). Not only
can others on the list copy the list and create their own (thinking, of
course, that you would also desire to belong to their list!), but spam
robots can easily pick up the entire list and circulate it. Kindly request
friends to remove you from the distribution list.

Don't use lots of
different email addresses. The same 20 spam messages going to
five different addresses becomes 100 spam messages in your Inbox. That's
overwhelming. Consolidate as much as possible using only one to three email
addresses.

Never
send credit card details or confidential information by email.
There's some suspicion that spammers hacking into personal computers may be
re-sending messages you've sent to spam databases. Why else would the spam
you receive in your inbox include legitimate messages intended for other
people? You cannot guarantee that your message will not land in places it
shouldn't.

Do try different spam
filters and tools within your own Outlook program. They will make a
big difference. Right within your PC, your
Outlook email program offers a Microsoft ruleswizard into which you can type words that
commonly appear in spam subject lines to be flagged as spam and
automatically sent to a special folder (Outlook, Tools, Rules and Alerts,
Email Rules, New Rule, etc.).

Another tool available to you within your
Outlook program is Microsoft's junk mail
filtering program. This allows you to place a button on your
screen that says "Add Sender to Blocked Senders List" and another button,
"Add Sender to Safe Senders List." You can customize and add other buttons
(such as "Block Domain"), then click incoming messages and mark them
appropriately.

You can also
set the level of security within
your Outlook program to protect your computer against viruses.

Do subscribe to a
third party email software of your choice. Some software programs make it
more difficult for spam to get through to you, often requiring every email
sender to confirm their identity first. Others do not interact with senders.
Check them out to see which is appropriate for your needs.

Choice Mailallows you to initially screen all incoming messages
and manage your incoming email. Cloudmark (formerly SpamNet) is a program used successfully by Wordpix client
Leslie P. Boston of Stone and Scott, Publishers. Mr. Boston says the
Cloudmark system teaches the user to block certain messages (which you may
unblock at any time) and routinely sends messages from those senders to a
special folder. "Cloudmark misses few spam items."

A
little program called "I
Hate Spam" acts very much like the Microsoft junk mail tools
already available to you by placing a special toolbar on your email program
screen, which you can use to mark
incoming messages for future deposit to a Quarantine folder.

Take control of your inbox. None of these steps
will totally alleviate the overwhelming influx of unsolicited email, but all of
them will make a noticeable difference and help you gain back your productivity
and peace of mind.

Although developers and programmers
have developed techniques for defeating spam (encryption and special coding of
email addresses, etc.), and third party spam reduction services, software and
email programs exist to help combat the problem, there are some simple things
you can do to address the problem at its source: The email address you display
on your web page, whether in the page footer, header or within the text.

It's that famous "at" sign
(@) that gets us in trouble and increases our chances of having the
email address harvested by spam robots. So let's find another way to
display the @. Keep in mind that no successful method will work forever.
Spammers are determined to mess up our efficient communications systems.

IMPORTANT: Display the email address as text,
but not as a link. Or make it a link to an Inquiry form or your
Contact page.

1.

infowordpix.comThe "@" sign is not typed. It is a graphic
image.
The email address does not link to anything.

2.

info AT
wordpix.comThe "@" sign is typed as text, not typed as a symbol.
Spaces are placed before and after it.
The email address does not link to anything.

3.

The entire email address is a graphic image.
It can be a link, but should link only to an inquiry form or contact
page.

4.

Email UsA simple link to your inquiry form.

If you make the email address a link,
make sure
it does NOT open the user's email program.

Review

Have the email link to an inquiry form or your website's
Contact page.

Do not allow an email link to open the user's email
program.

Who is this Dirty, Rotten
Scoundrel Spammer?

Spammers are said to belong to large
gangs using sophisticated software they've developed.
Researchers feel these gangs are responsible for up to 80
percent of all unwanted emails.

Spammers make money by selling their
large email databases.

Just reviewing a message in the
Preview window could confirm your email address!

Spammers send millions of email
messages using other people's computers, even yours (a good
reason to turn off your computer when it's not in use).

Although some spammers have been
caught and prosecuted under the CANN SPAM regulations effective
1/1/05, it is difficult to track them. New spam programs mutate
among different computers and use fast broadband connections,
aiding the spammers in their shenanigans.

The United States, Poland and China
are the top sources of spam.

Don't let them get your email
address. Use the tips in this story.

Should I
Explain to My Visitors Why the Email Link Won't
Open Their Email Program?

Sure, not a problem. We use brief explanations like the
following on many websites. Most users understand the spam problem and are
cooperative. To enhance usability, however, make the link open an Inquiry form
(and don't have a lot of "required" fields on the form).

Friendly notes for website visitors

Please TYPE* the following into the To line of your email
message: info
wordpix.com

We regret that we must take measures to defeat those vicious
spam robots. We appreciate your manually typing the following email
address into the To line of your email message:
info
wordpix.com

We appreciate your entering some brief information about your
inquiry into our general inquiry form.

Reduce Your Spam with Outlook Rules

Follow these guidelines in your Microsoft Outlook program to
create "rules" to deposit unsolicited emails (automatically) into your Junk
(or any other specified) folder: Open Outlook and select as follows: Tools,
Rules and Alerts, New Rule. In the Rules Wizard window, select Move Messages
from Someone (you will have an opportunity to enter the email address or
name) OR Move Messages with Specific Words in the Subject. Continue by
clicking Next. Check the appropriate box. In the bottom section of the
window, click on the hyperlink words and enter the email address of the
messages you do not wish to receive, or the specific words contained in
subject lines of messages you do not want to receive. Then select the
hyperlink to tell Outlook which folder to move these banned messages to. To
add more, click Next. When done, click Finish. (You also have the option to
permanently delete specified messages - would it not be nice to permanently
delete all spam?! Just be careful not to list words that may contain topics
you do want to receive.)

Don't Reply to Spam Messages!

Unless you know the source of the unsolicited message to be
a legitimate organization and an Unsubscribe link is provided, never bounce
the spam back to its sender and never hit your Reply button to send a
message to the sender. Doing so merely confirms that your email address
exists and keeps you in the spammer's database.

Your Ideas and Feedback?

We'd love to update this article (frequently!) to let our
customers and friends know about programs, software and techniques that could
help them reduce the amount of junk being sent to their inboxes. Email us to let
us know of something we should include here.

Thank you for doing your part to CAN
SPAM.

_______

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